


Angst Time (I don’t even like angst, but I guess this is really more hurt comfort)

by Lovelycatwrites



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: AU, Gen, Sympathetic Deceit Sanders, Sympathetic Duke, Sympathetic Patton, Sympathetic Remus, mention of unsympathetic patton, patton has a blog au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-26 06:00:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20925317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lovelycatwrites/pseuds/Lovelycatwrites
Summary: How Patton reacts to Unsympathetic Patton content and the Sides' response.





	Angst Time (I don’t even like angst, but I guess this is really more hurt comfort)

**Author's Note:**

> Note: I like all the sides characters. If it sounds like I am expressing a personal distaste for them that was not my intention.
> 
> I’m also not here to bash the people who make/like unsympathetic Patton stuff. You have your reasons for liking it and I won’t take that away from you (and neither should anyone else reading this). This is me exploring my own ideas about these characters and how they would react to this content, and not meant to criticize you guys.
> 
> If Sympathetic Patton, Sympathetic Deceit, and/or Sympathetic Remus content makes you uncomfortable or you just don’t like it, then don’t read this.
> 
> This AU comes from this post: https://ashensanity.tumblr.com/post/187923707480/oh-no-please-add-more-i-need-to-cryyyyy

Virgil sat upside down on the sofa in the mind palace living room. His headphones were on, but he wasn’t listening to anything just staring at the ceiling, thinking. The subject of his thoughts was not a pleasant one. He honestly wanted to just log on to Tumblr and shut off his mind for a minute, but therein lies a problem, the origin of his thoughts he wishes he didn’t have: Patton’s blog.

Patton had asked Virgil to help him make the blog a few years back. He’d said, “Thomas’ fans are just so creative and talented! I wanna see all their art and writing, and tell them how good the stuff they’re making is!”

So, Virgil helped him make an account. It was a simple request, why not? What harm could come of it?

And no harm did come from it. Patton reblogged fanart and fanfics, always with nice little comments and blocks of emojis. He found appreciation posts and shared them with the other sides (even ones for Deceit and Remus, though Virgil isn’t too sure they deserved the praise they receive). He even found some animal blogs and started posting baby animal pictures along with the fanworks. The blog was a haven of positivity for Patton and his followers and even Virgil.

Until recently.

It happened the first time a short while after Selfishness vs Selflessness uploaded. It wasn’t anything drastic, just a few posts saying Deceit had a point in his argument. This by itself wasn’t a bad thing, after all, if you’re creating a show that encourages people to analyze and learn to solve problems you shouldn’t be surprised when people do just that even if the problems are fictional. No, what worried Virgil about this was how some of these posts would bash Patton as part of proving that Deceit had a better point! That’s not how arguments work! [Logan would point out this logical fallacy is referred to as ad hominem.]

Looking back, Virgil knew criticizing the fanders in question on this point would be hypocritical, but this is a case where the ends do not justify the means.

These posts ruffled Virgil’s feathers, to say the least, but he didn’t tell anyone. Patton was acting like his normal self, and there were only a few posts and most of them just focused on Deceit’s actual argument. So Virgil kept these thoughts to himself. Maybe Patton didn’t even notice the ad hominem. So what if he was talking to Deceit a little more often? It was probably just to show him the “neato artwork” the fans made of him, there was certainly more since the video came out. Nothing to worry anyone else about.

The worry did pass eventually. He even almost forgot about the entire ordeal for a good while. Until the “Unsympathetic Patton” posts started showing up in his dash.

Maybe a week had passed since Thomas uploaded Dealing With Intrusive Thoughts when he saw it. It was one of many works to follow in which Patton actively split Creativity into Roman and Remus and then separates the brothers. It was jarring to see, not only the concept of Creativity being split like that but also just how cruel and uncaring Patton was portrayed in the work. Sure, Patton has his moments where he’d been stubborn or made a bad judgment call, but he’s never been cruel on purpose! As far as Virgil knew...

Doubt crept into Virgil’s mind and lingered longer than he would have liked. Had Patton ever treated someone like this? Was he really capable of that? He shook the thoughts from his mind. This was Patton, not some fanon abusive villain version of him.

It was just that one post for a while, and Virgil could ignore it with the stream of kittens and fluff and all the art of them wearing pretty skirts and dresses. It wasn’t important, that even wasn’t the first time Patton had reblogged a fan’s angst piece before, this was just angst based on a recent video. So Virgil forgot about it or at least pretended to until the next one showed up, and then the next one, and the next one. But they were all so spread apart, no need to worry, no big deal. Then the gaps between those posts would get smaller and smaller until they would be practically nonexistent. Red flag.

Patton was acting different, he slept in later (red flag), he stayed in his room more (Red Flag), and when was around them he didn’t speak as much, made fewer jokes, and had more forced smiles than genuine ones (RED FLAG RED FLAG RED FLAG).

Virgil didn’t know what he could do that would help, so he sat upside down on the sofa not listening to music and worrying.

Eventually, Roman came in with a stack of DVDs, clearly intent on marathoning them. He spotted Virgil but left him be for now assuming the emo was actually using his headphones. He set the stack on their blu ray player and went to the kitchen to make popcorn. As he did an idea struck Virgil: he couldn’t think of any ideas that would help but Roman, the literal embodiment of Thomas’ creativity, might be able to.

“Roman!”

“What?”

“I need your help!”

All thoughts of making popcorn and his Disney marathon were shoved to the back of his mind at those words. Virgil did not ask Roman for help very frequently, if at all. If he was asking it must be important, important enough to take precedence over even Disney. He practically sprinted back into the living room and bowed with a flourish, “How may I be of assistance?”

Virgil rolled his eyes, worry easing just a bit before crashing back down on him. “Don’t be weird about it. This is important!” He paused a moment as another thought occurs to him, “... we might need Logan for this too.” Bedford Roman could protest, he summoned Logan, which certainly wasn’t something Logan was pleased with. “Why have you summoned me? I was in the middle of reorganizing— “

Virgil cut him off, “it’s important! You guys have noticed how Patton’s been acting different, right?”  
“Are you referring to his change in sleep schedule or his increased avoidance of social interactions?”

“He probably means the way Patton’s stopped telling as many jokes or how his smile doesn’t reach his eyes anymore—“

“Yes, all of that! You have noticed, thank god, I don’t have to explain that part.”

“Virgil, do you know something about why Patton is behaving this way that we are not privy to,” Logan asked.

There was a pause, Logan and Roman giving Virgil their undivided attention. He looked away, fidgeting with his sleeve as he answered, “I’ve got a pretty good guess...”. He explained the situation with the Unsympathetic Patton posts and the correlation between them and the timing of Patton’s behavioral shift, and then there was another pause. The silence was broken by an uninvited voice.

“Well, that explains a few things.”

They all faced Deceit with varying expressions of shock and disgust. Virgil and Logan spoke at the same time.

“Get out of here Deceit!” “What ‘things’ does this explain?”

Deceit promptly ignored Virgil. Turning to Logan he explained, “recently, our dear Patton has been paying rather frequent visits to myself and Remus. In the past, he’d visit myself very rarely and almost never visited Remus. I suppose it makes sense that he’d increase his efforts if these posts made him believe he was treating us inadequately, always the bleeding heart that one—“

Virgil was only half listening to what Deceit had to say until he became too irritated to do even that anymore. “Shut up, Pinocchi-no! No one asked you to be here—“

“Virgil,” Logan cut in, “please refrain from your usual hostile behavior towards Deceit. He has not only shared information we were not aware of but could also aid us in... whatever this is we’re trying to do. What are we trying to do again?”

“Well I assume, since Virgil called this meeting—“

“Which you weren’t invited to.”

“— that he is worried about Patton’s behavior and wants to fix whatever caused it to change.”

“Is this true, Carpal Tunnel of Loath?”

Virgil let out several frustrated noises. “Yes! That’s what we’re trying to figure out!”

Roman raises his hands defensively, “Hey, woah, just making sure! You didn’t tell us before so...”

“I don’t see why you’re so upset. I’m trying to help not distract you, I’m not Remus—“

“Did somebody say ‘Remus’!”

There was a collective groan from everyone excluding Remus and Logan, though Logan was still noticeably annoyed. “May we please return to the task at hand? We have identified our problem and our goal, all we need now is a plan to reach it.”

“Why don’t we just talk to Padre about it? You know, like an intervention?”

Everyone turned to Roman, all with blank expressions. “What? Isn’t this how we’ve been working through all our emotional problems, just talking? I mean, there’s usually more we need to after that to not fall back on our progress but that’s always one of the first steps.”

“I- Roman, you are right. How should we go about this? We’ll need to get Patton out here—“

“I can tell him the kitchen is on fire! Ooh, or I can SET the kitchen on fire!”

“No, Remus. Why doesn’t someone just summon him?”

“Excellent suggestion.” And with that, Logan summoned Patton.

Patton was not looking like his happy-pappy self, of course, he hasn’t looked that way for some time now. His hair was uncombed and he was wearing his cat onesie, which looked rumpled, giving him the appearance of having just woken up, though his red cheeks and puffy eyes suggested otherwise. He tried to smile at the other sides, but it was painfully strained. “Hey, kiddos, what’s going on? Is this a family meeting?”

The others all exchanged glances before Logan spoke, “it is a “family meeting” of a sort. There is something we need to discuss with you. Please have a seat.”

All the sides sat in a sort of circle around the living room. Patton looked between the others, clearly confused. “What is it you all want to talk about?”

“We have all observed a change in your behavior recently and would simply like to address the cause of it. We are not entirely certain, but Virgil believes it is related to the recent trend of a certain category of posts on your blog. Is this correct?”

“Certain category... You mean me posting more angst stuff? Kiddo, that’s not an issue. I just came across a lot at once is all.”

“It’s not- It’s not just ‘angst’, Patton! It’s those stupid Unsympathetic Patton posts! You didn’t start avoiding everyone and sleeping in ‘til two pm and hiding how you feel again until you started posting those dumb things every day!”

“Virgil! They’re not dumb! They’re very well written!”

“They write you completely out of character! You don’t act anything like the Patton in those stories!”

“Everyone interprets media differently, that’s no reason to stop them from writing!”

“Well, you don’t have to read it! If it’s something that bothers you like this, you can just avoid it! Block the tag!”

“But I want to read it!”

“Why? If it is truly the cause of your distress, why do you indulge in it?”

“Because I don’t want to be like the Patton in those stories!”

There was a pause, no one knew how to respond.

“... I don’t want to be the Patton that doesn’t listen to someone just because their ideas don’t match up with mine...”

“Oh, Pat...”

Another pause. Logan adjusted his glasses.

“Your reasoning is considerate, but your logic is flawed. While listening to another person’s point of view is important in understanding their ideas and values, you are not obligated to continue listening when these subjects cause harm to your mental health. From what I have heard, you have been overexposing yourself to these negative portrayals, and while I would prefer you follow Virgil’s suggestion of ignoring these posts considering how much your behavior has shifted, since you seem to want to support these creators, I think it would be in your best interest if you moderated the amount of time you indulged in these posts. Would that be sufficient?”

Patton nodded, “yeah... I think I can do that.”

Roman move closer and hugged him, “and you can always tell us if something is bothering you.”

“Ok.”

“You know we love you, right?”

“Yeah,” Patton’s voice cracks.

Virgil moves over to join them, laying his head on Patton’s shoulder. “Please take care of yourself, ok? I worry about you.”

“Hey, I’m the dad here. That’s my job.”

“Won’t stop me.”

Logan places his hand on Patton’s other shoulder. “Being fatherly does not exempt you from needing help. Don’t forget that.”

Deceit sighed and set by Patton’s legs, leaning against him. “While I don’t like that it was brought on by guilt, I do appreciate the effort you have made to be more accommodating. It wasn’t necessary.”

“It was, I promise.”

Remus stared at them all from his seat, not moving. “I honestly don’t know what’s going on here. I showed up late and I zoned out when Logan said ‘family meeting’. Are we all supposed to be saying something sappy?”

Patton rolled his teary eyes and waved Remus over, “just get over here.”

Remus moved over and sat in Patton’s lap, pushing Roman partly away. They all stayed like that for a while until Patton stopped sniffling. Then deceit asked, “so, what do we do now?”

Roman perked up. “We could do a Disney marathon! I already have some movies picked out on the blu ray player!”

“I’ll make the popcorn,” Remus shouted, jumping up and sprinting into the kitchen.

Roman followed him just as quickly. “Don’t you dare touch the microwave!”


End file.
